Fine Art Photographer

Every photograph — irrespective of its category of reference (documentary, portrait, landscape…) — is the reflection of an individual’s sensitivity, the meeting point between a moment and an emotion.

There might be photographic accidents, but nothing happens by mere chance: all the photos we take (subjects, frames, locations…), the way they are processed and printed, the selection process to the final edit all are elements expressing our subjectivity and — at the same time — define our own personality. Thus, the greater our understanding of our emotions and suroundings, the better our chances to exert a certain form of control over the creative process.

This class aims at encouraging the students to express their personality and sensitivity via a clearly defined and coherent body of work. The idea is to provide them with the tools to discuss and analyze their photographs as well as those of their fellow students, to give constructive criticism using the basic rules of composition as well as their own sense of aesthetics.

The work of classical and contemporary photographers – famous and on the margins – will be analyzed, so as to better understand how images are constructed and made more efficient.

The goal is to improve the students’ ability to associate images into narratives, in order to create a strong and coherent body of work, and as such define their own “visual signature”. Having a strong visual signature, the print of a photographer’s visual identity, is extremely important to make a difference in an already highly competitive market.

This class is also about giving the students a good understanding of the photography market and its different actors (galleries, advertising agencies, publishing companies), helping them set up an appropriate marketing strategy (cards, postcards, portfolio, etc.).

The aim of the class is to ensure the students’ capacity to:
– Research extensively on a given subject
– Be interested in what goes on in the art world in general and the photographic scene in particular
– Be critical of their work
– Put together an original photographic project, in relation to a given or proposed narrative
– Develop their own visual signature
– Edit their series of images
– Put together a strong and coherent body of work